Curator of the Kupferstichkabinett (Graphics Collection), Berlin State Museums and expertising authority. He was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, which is present-day Prague, Czech Republic. Friedrich Lippmann was in Prague, the youngest son of a wealthy factory owner. He often travelled to Venice as a child with his father. After graduating from the Prague Gymnasium in 1856 he spent several months in Paris before attending university studying political science. in the 1860s he moved to Vienna to study both technology and the fine arts.